Today at 6pm ET, CNN's Wolf Blitzer continues to take us inside the conflict with a special edition of The Situation Room: North Korean Crisis.

South Korean officials fear this could be the week that North Korea goes ahead with a provocative missile launch. North Korea's communist regime warns the region is becoming a "hotbed of war," and tensions are only rising now that the North Korea are pulling workers out of a joint industrial zone near the border.

As Kim Jong Un threatens war, how can he afford to test his weapons and the patients of the world? CNN's Chris Lawrence is following the money.

And some Americans are on vacation in a crisis zone. They'll tell CNN's David McKenzie about their pleasure tour of North Korea.

Also joining Wolf are are Christiane Amanpour, House Homeland Security Chairman Rep. Peter King, Former U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, Former U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Christopher Hlil, Diana Magnay in Tokyo, Kyung Lah in Seoul, Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr, Tom Foreman, and Brian Todd.

soundoff(5 Responses)

It's great to report on N. Korea's military....yes, 1.2 million soldiers. Then we continually heat the US has 28,000 troops. Yet, I'm dumbfounded why CNN and others don't go into the numbers of S.Korea. They are in the top 7 military spenders in the world: $82 billion last year. They have 1.2 Million in active service, with 3 million in reserve. They have 800 military aircraft. While the North has 1200, they are jets & aircraft from the 1950s/60s. The South's Navy is significant with modern warships, while the North had more ships, they are extremely dated. The South had 10s of thousands of missiles like the north. The short of it, the South is fully prepared to face a war. Why we don't get these numbers from news media can only be due to ratings and drama to watch the news. All that said, its rather ironic that these experts continue to claim the North lacks sophistication too mount nuke on missile. This is the arrogance, to not even give thought that the nuke may have already been trucked it across the border, from the joint factories, long ago. Nothing better than a Trojan Horse

i dont think we should mess around with N. korea. if they fire a missle shoot it down. show them we will not be intimidated. if they do more saber rattling then send in the B2's & show them they better shut up & get serious about living in the real world. dont send troops to N. korea they have to many hiding holes & have been prepareing for 60 years, let's use the planes, drones, etc.

Colin Clayton Navy announces Laser defense system to shoot boats and drones and disinigrate to nothing! Hey North Korea you better wake up! You are going to be squashed like a little bug that you are!Japan setting up defense systems around Tokyo! Looks like World War 3 is upon us! I wish that the Pope would Talk to Kim Jong Un and tell him to back off! Telling foriegn workers in South Korea to leave is saying he is not backing off! Hope you enjoy hell? Because thats where you are headed Kim Jong Un!

The North Korean leader is at this point putting his people in jeopardy. He knows that if he makes any aggressive movement he and his people will be the enemies of the world. The people I am sure do not want or need their country in conflict. Hopefully the man will come to his senses and back track on his threats.

Put the brakes on, America! From North Korea's perspective, the U.S. has ended Iraq war involvement, and soon will pull out of Afghanistan. That leaves Iran and, yes, North Korea as the possible next "bad actors" military response! They know that, the U.S. knows that, and thinking people around the world know that!
America should actively and in no uncertain terms assure North Korea that we are not looking to get involved militarily with anyone, as we did in two simultaneous foreign wars recently, unless 100% unavoidable. At this juncture, we, nor our allies, do NOT need to attack North Korea, and we and others must impress North Korea of our nonaggressive stance! Our failure to adequately reassure North Korea could be the underlying basis for their hurried preparations for war!